Since I couldn't possibly do anything more to hurt it, I whipped out my brush and started to paint in a flock of geese. Migrating Canada Geese.
I was wrong. I could make the painting worse.
The painting now looked even more constrained, and trite ! It actually looked more like a snapshot than a painting. Although I did not paint this from a picture, I still think it is a valid illustration of why one should never paint from a photograph.
I had to loosen up the painting somewhat. Again I resorted to the titanium white. I selectively blocked out some of the birds and a few valleys to take away some of the uniformity. All these white-out moves unfortunately went against the grain of Chinese Brush methods. I might as well be doing oil or watercolor. The only thing Chinese about this piece was the calligraphic brush strokes of the geese; at least I tried.
I think I was able to loosen up the painting a little, but the caveat is it is still cliche.
